Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker John Boehner appointed
six lawmakers to help review ethics allegations against
California Representative Maxine Waters, replacing Ethics
Committee members who disqualified themselves from the case.

Waters, a Democrat, is accused of improperly helping a
financially troubled Boston bank, in which her husband owned
stock, seek $50 million of emergency federal assistance during
the financial market crisis in 2008. She would be first in line
to be chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee if
Democrats gain the majority in the November elections.

Mikael Moore, Waters’s chief of staff, declined to comment.

The appointment of the six temporary Ethics Committee
members was announced on the House floor after the panel’s
chairman, Republican Jo Bonner of Alabama, ranking Democrat
Linda Sanchez of California and four other Republican members
recused themselves from participating in the case.

The disqualifications stemmed from a review of Waters’s
allegations of misconduct by two former Ethics Committee staff
lawyers in handling her case, which originated in 2010. In July,
the panel hired Washington attorney Billy Martin to probe
allegations that the lawyers improperly communicated information
about the Waters case to Republican lawmakers.

No Evidence of Bias

Martin found no evidence of bias or a need for
disqualification by members of the panel, Bonner said in a
letter to Boehner, an Ohio Republican, that was read aloud on
the House floor. Bonner said he and his colleagues were recusing
themselves “out of an abundance of caution and to remove even
the appearance of unfairness.”

The temporary replacements are Republicans Bob Goodlatte of
Virginia, Steve LaTourette of Ohio, Mike Simpson of Idaho,
Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Tim Griffin of
Arkansas, as well as Democrat John Sarbanes of Maryland.

Besides Bonner and Sanchez, the four members who recused
themselves were Republicans Charles Dent of Pennsylvania, Gregg
Harper of Mississippi, and Mike Conaway and Michael McCaul, both
of Texas.